Jen Worrells writes “Library Elf (http://www.libraryelf.com/) is a service that provides email notices of materials out, overdues and hold filled.
Not affiliated with any library, it interacts with your dynix catalog with the library card number a pin, provided by the customer.
Jen asks LISNews readers, “Is anyone else surprised or appalled that customers willingly hand over this information (plus their email address!) for a free service? We advise our customers to guard their library card number as they would a credit card number. I guess they exchange privacy for convenience. My problem is that they list our library, which seems like we have endorsed the service.”
It appears to be a service that the public wants
Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library and the associated libraries that share catalogs currently run on a hand-rolled system that has provided some of these services.
Of course, they are transitioning from Discovery Place to Dynix, a move that has been postponed at least twice already. I don’t know if this implementation will include any of these features. I have gotten used to having at least email of holds filled, so I hope so.
Eventually (before the end of the year?) I’ll have a catalog that will be supported by Jon Udell’s LibraryLookup Project.
Re:It appears to be a service that the public want
I am not surprised people are doing it. I think they want the convenience, and if we don’t provide it, they will give their information to someone who will.
I do it for the convenience
I do it, and I love the service. It’s interesting that you think it’s a crazy invasion of privacy, because while it is, I’m regularly amazed at all the other things people give out.
For example, I don’t give out my social security number to all the utilities, doctors, etc who ask for it. I pay for as much as I can with cash, and have a grocery store loyalty card under a false name. I top up my anonymously-held cell phone with cash, don’t tell Quicken how to connect to my bank, and don’t have a Paypal account. All of these things *matter* to me, mostly because they have potential financial implications and are protecting information that is, in theory, somewhat private.
But honestly, the government can already see my library records whenever they want to, and I don’t really care if anyone else does once Big Brother already has the power.
Re:I do it for the convenience
Interesting perspective. I worry more about things going the OTHER way. Private entities have proven to be MUCH more effective in utilizing personal information than the government. So much so that Big Brother has become a large consumer of the private data crunchers. Sure, BB does sometimes shop out the raw data that it has for processing by Acxiom and others, but more often it is just purchasing the results. BB is also ostensibly more regulated about the kinds of things it can do with the info it collects, which pushes them right into the role of consuming results from the private sources.
I LOVE LibraryElf
With four family members with library cards at 3 different library systems, this is fantastic. A list of all books out in one place. And it does not have to be a Dynix system either. It can be set up for any type of library system.
As for privacy. I really don’t care who knows what I read. But then I am a Canadian living in Canada and I think we are much more relaxed about these privacy issues.
Re:I LOVE LibraryElf
I think with privacy issues some people don’t care if big business or the government looks at their reading habits, as long as their friends and family don’t.
Then it becomes a totally different issue.
True, but…
I suppose it is an invasion of privacy, but the simple fact is that they’re providing a service that the ILS vendors themselves are not, and perhaps bringing RSS to the attention of those vendors by competing with them. I’m happy to let them invade my privacy until the vendors get with the times.